The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

Over the last two years there has been a surge in the number of prisoners committing suicide. If from 2008 to 2010, and before that, there were 40-44 cases of suicide each year, in 2011 the figure had risen by 34%. The situation in 2012 was even worse: 55 people committed suicide, of whom 14 were being held in SIZO. [pre-trial detention centre].

This is a frightening 54% increase since 2008-2010.

2012 also saw a very high number of deaths in Ukrainian prison – 1, 022, of whom 179 people died in SIZO. This was in fact lower than in 2011 when 1, 169 people died, nonetheless the level on 2012 is 33% higher than the average for 2008-2010.

Показники

1.1.2004

1.1.2008

1.1.2009

1.1.2010

1.1.2011

1.1.2012

1.1.2013

Number of people in places of confinement

191677

149690

145946

147716

154027

154029

147112

Number who died

824

729

765

761

808

1169

1021

Per 1 thousand prisoners

4.30

4.87

5.24

5.15

5.25

7.59

6.94

Cases of suicide

41

54

40

44

44

59

65

Per 1 thousand prisoners

0.21

0.36

0.27

0.30

0.9

0.383

0.442

People with tuberculosis in an active form

9080

6195

6079

5667

5486

4822 (?)

нема даних

Per 1 thousand prisoners

47.37

41.4

41.65

38.36

35.62

HIV-positive

1917

5017

5073

6069

6020

6910

6957

Per 1 thousand prisoners

10.0

33.5

34.8

41.1

39.1

44.9

47.3

Oleksandr Bukalov, Head of Donetsk Memorial writes that the State Penitentiary Service has not taken measures to determine the reasons for the considerable increase in prison deaths nor to reduce the number. He dismisses the reference to prisoners who are HIV positive or who suffer from tuberculosis, pointing out this was always the case. Nor does the increase in either figure necessarily lead to an increase in the number of deaths. Quite the contrary, he says. With an increase in the number of people with HIV in 2009 by 996, the number of deaths actually fell by 4.

Nor, of course, does any of this explain the sharp rise in the number of suicides, and Donetsk Memorial rightly demands that the Penitentiary Service provide the real causes.